Live coverage: Japanese asteroid mission blasts off

A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket lifted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California at 9:49:51 a.m. local time (12:49:51 p.m. EST; 1749:51 today to deploy a covert U.S. national security payload. Follow the ascent in our live journal.

Ground teams have approved plans for Japan’s Hayabusa 2 sample return mission to briefly land on asteroid Ryugu for the second time July 11, aiming for a targeted touch-and-go to gather material exposed by an explosive impactor released by the robot explorer in April.

SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket with another flock of 60 Starlink internet satellites from Florida’s Space Coast at 11:31 a.m. EDT (1531 GMT) Saturday. The Falcon 9’s reusable first stage landed successfully on SpaceX’s drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean.